The purity of the camp as God's dwelling-place in its passage
through the world

Let us pursue the study of the book. Chapter 5 presents three
things, in connection with the purity of the camp, looked at as the
dwelling-place of God, and in connection with our pilgrim passage
through the wilderness, which is the great subject of the Book of
Numbers; a passage in which all is put to the test, and in which the
presence of God ungrieved in the midst of us is our only security, and
guidance, and strength.

Defilement purged, wrong done amended, and jealousy tested

Every defilement was to be purged out.

God took knowledge of the wrong done there against a brother. If
this be always true, it is the more so when applied to the wrong done
to Him, who has not been ashamed to call us His brethren. When the
trespass could not be recompensed to the person who had suffered the
wrong, or to his kinsman, it was due to God in the person of the
priest, beside the sin-offering. In God's camp no wrong could be
committed without amends being made for it.

Then comes the question of jealousy. If the faithfulness of Israel,
the church, or an individual, to God or to Christ, be questioned,
there must be the trial of it. It seems to me that the dust of the
tabernacle was the power of death in God's presence, fatal to the
natural man, but precious, as the death of sin, for him who has
life. The water is the power of the Holy Ghost acting by the word on
the conscience.

Unfaithfulness manifested annd judged by the Spirit of God

The power of the Holy Spirit judging thus (according to the
sentence of death against the flesh), the state of
unfaithfulness -- which was thought to be hidden from the true
husband of the people, makes the sin manifest, and brings down the
chastening and the curse upon the unfaithful one, and that evidently
by the just judgment of God. Drinking death, according to the power of
the Spirit, is life to the soul. "By these things," says
Hezekiah, "men live, and in all these things is the life of my
spirit"; even when they are the effect of chastening, which is
not always necessarily the case. But if any of the accursed things be
hidden -- if there be unfaithfulness towards Jesus, undetected, it
may be, by man, and God puts it to the test; if we have allowed
ourselves to be enticed by him who has the power of death, and the
holy power of God is occupied with death, and comes to deal with this
power of the enemy -- the concealed evil is laid bare, the flesh is
reached; its rottenness and its powerlessness are made manifest,
however fair its appearances may be. But if we be free from
unfaithfulness, the result of the trial is only negative; it shews
that the Spirit of holiness finds nothing to judge, when He applies
death according to the holiness of God.

The offering displaying God's judgment of our ways

In the offering without either oil or frankincense, the woman is
set before God, according to the judgment of God displayed against
sin, in His holiness and majesty, when Christ was made sin for us. Sin
which is confessed has never that effect; for the conscience is
purified from it by Christ. The unfaithfulness here spoken of, is that
of the heart of Israel -- of the church to Christ. All these things
apply, not to the acceptance of the believer, or of the church as to
righteousness -- that is treated of where drawing near to God is in
question -- but to the judgment of our ways in the wilderness
journey, inasmuch as God is in our midst.

Unfaithfulness in heart

The church would do well to consider how far she has given herself
to another. There are some, assuredly, amongst its members who have
not done it in heart. If Christ did not discover the iniquity, and
cause it to be judged, He would be, so to speak, identified with the
iniquity of the bride, and thus defiled thereby (ver. 31); He will
therefore surely do so What is here said of the church may be equally
said of each one of its members: remembering here also, that the
question is one, not of salvation, but of the walk down here, the walk
in the wilderness being ever the subject of this book. [1]

Let us also observe that the soul, or the church, can, in other
respects, shew a zeal, an extraordinary devotedness, which are indeed
sincere, whilst it falls into a fault which it conceals from itself up
to a certain point. But nothing can counterbalance unfaithfulness to
one's husband.

[1] Looked at as a professing whole, or as an individual who makes
profession, there may be the discovery that there is nothing real; as
the case has been in Israel according to the flesh and will be also in
the professing church. They have been unfaithful to their husband.